EFFICIENCY OF CURCUMIN AND CHITOSAN NANOPARTICLES AGAINST TOXICITY OF POTASSIUM DICHROMATE IN MALE MICE

Objective: The purpose of this work is to examine the protective effect of nanocurcumin and nanochitosan supplementation against potassium dichromate toxicity in male mice. Methods: Male albino mice weighing 25-30 gm were divided into six groups; the first group received saline. Second and third groups were given oral dose of nanocurcumin and nanochitosan respectively for 5 d. Fourth group was injected subcutaneously with a single dose of potassium dichromate for 24 h. Group five and six were administrated nanocurcumin and nanochitosan, respectively prior to potassium dichromate. Animals were anesthetized by ether anesthesia then bone marrow was harvested for chromosomal examination and epididymal sperms were collected for sperm morphology, while Kidneys and testes were collected for western blot and biochemical analysis. Results: Potassium dichromate induced significant (P≤0.05) increase in chromosome and sperm abnormalities as well as testicular and renal MDA, renal MPO, renal contents of IL-18 and IGF-1, testicular contents of caspase 3 and cytosolic cytochrome c, a reduction in testosterone level, and GPx of renal and testicular tissues compared to control group. Pretreatment with both types of nanoparticles showed significant (P≤0.05) mitigation against most alterations induced by potassium dichromate; moreover, nanochitosan gave more significant (P≤0.05) improvement against chromosome and sperm abnormalities than nanocurcumin. Conclusion: The present study revealed that the selected nanoparticles have antioxidant as well as antigenotoxic properties against toxicity of potassium dichromate

The Interaction between Virtual Reality Glasses Tracking Types and Cognitive Style to Develop English Vocabulary Skills and Immersion among Primary Stages Pupils with Learning Difficulties

This paper focuses on measuring the impact of interaction between virtual reality glasses tracking types (Positional - Rotational) and cognitive styles (Impulsivity - Reflectivity) to develop English vocabulary skills among primary-stage pupils with learning difficulties. Five instruments were utilized in the research process and the results reported the test. English vocabulary checklists were employed to identify the vocabulary that will be used in the course of the  research. The test are as follows: an English test to identify the learning difficulties of students in the English Language, the test of mental ability to identify the IQ mean scores of students, a standard test of Kagan to measure the cognitive style (Impulsivity - Reflectivity), and pre and post-English vocabulary achievement test. However, immersion scale and the suggested English vocabulary skills program depend on positional - rotational tracking type. The participants were students in grade five and their number is 89 from the primary stage at Tarek Ibn Zaid school, Minia, Egypt. Using four groups of quasi-experimental design, the research followed applying tests of mental ability, English test to identify difficulties, and Cognitive style test of Kagan. It also followed a pre and post-testing procedure before and after applying for the virtual reality program and applying the immersion scale at the end of the program. The quantitative results of the study indicated that there was no interaction between virtual reality glasses tracking type (Positional - Rotational) because of the lack of direct relationship between cognitive style and virtual reality glasses tracking type, especially in immersion with learning and acquiring English vocabulary skills, and that there is no preferred pattern for virtual reality glasses tracking type with one of the cognitive methods that was dealt with in the research. This is most especially in learning and acquiring English vocabulary skills

The Effectiveness of Producing a Blended Learning Environment Based on the Programming of an Educational Robot to Develop Problem-solving Skills in Science for Intermediate School Students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The goal of this research is to measure the effectiveness of producing a Blended learning environment based on the programming of an educational robot to develop problem-solving skills in science for intermediate school students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The research sample was randomly selected from sixty (60) students in the second year. The researcher used the experimental method with a quasi-experimental design (the design of the control group - experimental with a pre and post-test) Where the experimental group is taught through a blended learning environment based on the programming of the educational robot The control group is taught traditionally

The Effectiveness of Producing a Blended Learning Environment Based on the Programming of an Educational Robot to Develop Problem-solving Skills in Science for Intermediate School Students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The goal of this research is to measure the effectiveness of producing a Blended learning environment based on the programming of an educational robot to develop problem-solving skills in science for intermediate school students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The research sample was randomly selected from sixty (60) students in the second year. The researcher used the experimental method with a quasi-experimental design (the design of the control group - experimental with a pre and post-test) Where the experimental group is taught through a blended learning environment based on the programming of the educational robot The control group is taught traditionally

The Effectiveness of Producing a Blended Learning Environment Based on the Programming of an Educational Robot to Develop Problem-solving Skills in Science for Intermediate School Students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This study aimed to examine the effect of producing a Blended learning environment based on the programming of an educational robot to develop problem-solving skills in Science for intermediate school students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The sample of the study consists of   (60) intermediate school students. A total of Four research questions and hypotheses were used in the study. A pre-post-test design was used to achieve the study's objectives in which special treatment was given to the experimental group, whereas no treatment was given to the control group. SPSS was used as a statistical tool to examine the present research results. The study's results proved the effectiveness of a Blended learning environment based on the programming of an educational robot in developing problem-solving skills in Science for intermediate school students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the experimental group showed a better performance in the post-test than the control group. Moreover, the correlation test results indicated a significant positive relationship between the Blended learning environment based on the programming of educational robot performance and students' developing problem-solving skills in Science.   &nbsp

The Impact of Providing Chatbot Content on Developing the English Communication Skills Among Al-Azhar Kindergarten Teachers

This paper focuses on investigating the impact of using Chatbot content on improving the English communication skills of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif kindergarten teachers. The researcher used a quasi-experimental design to explain the differences that occurred in the teachers` performance before and after the intervention of the Chatbot content. This design required the researcher to develop a performance observation checklist, which is the main tool of this research. In addition, the researcher constructed the Chatbot content and the e-training programme. After the research design was completed, thirty-three (33) female Azhari kindergarten teachers participated in this experiment. The performance observation checklist was used for evaluating the teachers` performance before and after the intervention of the Chatbot content and for measuring the teachers` retention of the acquired skills. At the end of the research, a statistical analysis of the results was applied. The results showed a statistically significant difference at the level of 0.05 on the performance observation checklist`s mean scores of the sample teachers' pre-and post-application of the Chatbot content in favour of the postapplication. The second statistical analysis of the performance observation checklist showed that there is no significant difference between the sample teachers` mean scores in the post- and follow-up application of the Chatbot content. These results are proof that validate the research`s main assumption that Chatbot content can improve the English communication skills of kindergarten teachers

The Effectiveness of Using a Cognitive Style-based Chatbot in Developing Science Concepts and Critical Thinking Skills among Preparatory School Pupils

The research investigated the effectiveness of using a cognitive style-based chatbot in developing science concepts and critical thinking skills among preparatory school pupils. To achieve the aim of the research, the researchers applied the two groups' quasi-experimental design and utilized three instruments as follows;1) Budner scale to measure the tolerance of ambiguity; 2) Science concepts achievement test developed by the researchers and implemented before and after applying a cognitive style-based chatbot; 3) The critical thinking skills test developed by the researchers to identify four critical thinking skills required for grade 8 level and implemented before and after applying a cognitive style-based chatbot. The participants were chosen randomly from eighth-graders (N=50) at HOIS (Hurghada Official International School), Red Sea Governorate, Egypt. The researchers divided participants into two experimental groups of 25 pupils (EGA) and (EGB) according to their cognitive style as tolerant or intolerant of ambiguity. Quantitative results showed the significant mean differences between the scores of participants at level (0.005 ≥) in the pre-post testing procedures in favor of the post-testing for both dependent variables (science concept and critical thinking skills). Results indicated the positive impact of utilizing a cognitive style-based chatbot in developing science concepts and critical thinking skills for preparatory school pupils. So, the researchers recommended employing chatbots in learning science for their high effectiveness in developing science concepts and critical thinking skills among preparatory school pupils in Egypt

Simulation and performance assessment of a modified throttled load balancing algorithm in cloud computing environment

Load balancing is crucial to ensure scalability, reliability, minimize response time, and processing time and maximize resource utilization in cloud computing. However, the load fluctuation accompanied with the distribution of a huge number of requests among a set of virtual machines (VMs) is challenging and needs effective and practical load balancers. In this work, a two listed throttled load balancer (TLT-LB) algorithm is proposed and further simulated using the CloudAnalyst simulator. The TLT-LB algorithm is based on the modification of the conventional TLB algorithm to improve the distribution of the tasks between different VMs. The performance of the TLT-LB algorithm compared to the TLB, round robin (RR), and active monitoring load balancer (AMLB) algorithms has been evaluated using two different configurations. Interestingly, the TLT-LB significantly balances the load between the VMs by reducing the loading gap between the heaviest loaded and the lightest loaded VMs to be 6.45% compared to 68.55% for the TLB and AMLB algorithms. Furthermore, the TLT-LB algorithm considerably reduces the average response time and processing time compared to the TLB, RR, and AMLB algorithms

Dynamic generalized normal distribution optimization for feature selection

High dimensionality of data represents a major problem that affects the accuracy of the classification. This problem related with classification is mainly resulted from the availability of irrelevant features. Feature selection represents a solution to a problem by selecting the most informative features and discard the irrelevant features. Generalized normal distribution optimization (GNDO) represents a newly developed optimization that confirmed its outperformance in comparison with well-known optimization algorithms on parameter extraction for photovoltaic models. As an optimization algorithm, however, GNDO suffers from degraded performance when dealing with a problem with a high dimensionality. The main problems of GNDO include exploitation problem by falling into local optima problem. Also, GNDO has solutions diversity problem when it deals with data with high dimensionality. To alleviate the drawbacks of this algorithm and solve feature selection problems, a local search algorithm (LSA) is used. The new algorithm is called dynamic generalized normal distribution optimization (DGNDO), which includes the following main improvements to GNDO: it can improve the best solution to solve the local optima problem, it can improve solution diversity by improving the randomly selected solution, and it can improve both exploration and exploitation combined. To confirm the outperformance and efficiency of the new DGNDO algorithm, DGNDO algorithm is applied on 20 benchmarked datasets from UCI repository of data. In addition, DGNDO algorithm results are compared with seven well-known optimization algorithms using number of evaluation metrics including classification, accuracy, fitness, the number of selected features, statistical results using Wilcoxon test and convergence curves. The obtained results reveal the superiority of DGNDO algorithm over all other competing algorithms

Prevalence, Predictors, and Outcomes of Resistant Hypertension in Egyptian Population

Background: Hypertension is a leading problem; it affects around thirty million adult Egyptians, according to the last national registry. The exact prevalence of resistant hypertension (RH) in Egypt wasn’t spotted before. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence, predictors, and impact on adverse cardiovascular outcomes among adult Egyptians with RH. Methods: The present study examined a cohort of 990 hypertensive patients who were divided into two groups based on their blood pressure control; group I (n = 842) patients who achieved blood pressure control and group II (n = 148) patients who met the RH definition criteria. All patients underwent a close follow-up for one year to evaluate the major cardiovascular events. Results: The prevalence of RH was 14.9%. The main predictors impacting the cardiovascular outcomes of RH were advanced age (≥65 years), the presence of chronic kidney diseases, a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2, and NSAID use. After one year of follow-up, the RH group displayed noticeably higher rates of major cardiovascular events, including new-onset atrial fibrillation (6.8% vs. 2.5%, P = 0.006), cerebral stroke (4.1% vs. 1.2%, P = 0.011), myocardial infarction (4.7% vs. 1.3%, P = 0.004), and acute heart failure (4.7% vs. 1.8%, P = 0.025). Conclusion: The prevalence of RH in Egypt is moderately high. Patients with RH have a far higher risk of cardiovascular events than those whose blood pressure is within control